Last time they had this deal there were thousands of people there filling trolleys with food. The queue was about 25 minutes to pay. If you're already going to buy something from Ikea it's a great deal. Some people were buying food they could take home, like water bottles, boxed chocolates, etc. And Ikea staff kept their food shelves stocked!

If you are making a large purchase and you can just buy heaps of water/coke bottles and boxed chocolates then this is a good deal but the Ikea food that they serve tastes like hospital food and the dining area is filthy

To cheat the system, ozbargain style, then buy 150 bottles of water at $2 each.
Then get a nice bookcase/dining table for free.
Just a reminder,that IKEA is busy as it is now. You might be waiting in line for a long time.
PS- please dont come through my check out when this promo happens

Can't wait for this! I think during the first time they did this you could have multiple dockets. This combined with the 10% off giftcard promotion was just too good!

Besides water bottles what are people going to buy to take home? Last time had the salmon and that was ok along with meatballs. Was going to lug in some bottled water but didn't think it was included :/ until I checked out and saw people with heaps of bottled water trays..

Yeah can someone clarify that? if I could go to the food after the checkouts it would be so awesome. If I remember correctly they have a small selection of frozen goods in the restaurant (or am i just getting mixed up?).

not allow to vote :( anyway thanks for this! am about to go to Ikea to buy a whole heap of soft toys, so this is handy. From 1 Nov to 24 Dec, for each soft toy sold, Ikea will donate 1 euro (approx $1.3) to Unicef (childrens fund for school supplies etc) http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_AU/rooms_ideas/soft_toys_12/index....

Provided the light globes are of equal or greater cost than your meal. Otherwise the discount is just the value of the light globes. Easier to think of it this way, you pay for the goods and you get a free meal up to the value of the goods.

Make sure you are in need & decided to buy some IKEA stuffs, so you can view this deal as a bargain …
Otherwise it is just another way to overspend money on foods (today I've seen some people filling up the 3 tier food trolley) and buy whatever they can later …

Restaurant was busy during the day but they were running two queues serving food from both sides. The queues at the registers past the warehouse on the other hand was insane. Don't expect the self-service lanes to be "express" lanes. Staff have to manually key in the discount.

Went to Ikea Tempe tonight for dinner and a Billy bookcase. There was a queue, but it only took about 5 minutes to get through. This was about 7.45 pm.

When the person at the register saw the five bars of chocolate on the tray she reminded my wife that all food had to be consumed in the restaurant for it to apply to the discount. We obviously didn't eat them on the spot, but there was no issue claiming the discount at the checkout.

The five bars of chocolate went into my wife's handbag and I seriously doubt they would search bags. Five bars of chocolate was really only 'testing the water', so to speak. A couple of dozen bottles of water may be a different story. In any case, it didn't seem like the person at the checkout paid much attention to what was on the receipt except the total price at the bottom, which had to be entered in manually as a discount. However, she could have been rushing because it was 15 minutes to closing time and there was a queue behind us.

how is the que at Rhodes today? thinking of going this afternoon. Will buy a whole lot of chocolates and things that can be taken home. Can you buy all the food and then take it back to your car, then go back in with the receipt to get your Ikea products?

Speaking of which, I saw a couple last night with true Ozbargainer spirit. They got a whole bunch of Ikea tupperware containers, washed em, then bought a tonne of food and filled the containers. Would have been interesting at the checkout…

i was at Rhodes last night 6:30 - 8pm. massive queue for hot food but not too bad at the cashier (i only bought cold drinks and only waited 5min to pay). people buying huge quantities of bottle water/juice and bars of chocolate. the cashier at restaurant did not say you have to consume it all. i am not sure if people put their stuff back to their car first or not. at the store checkout the cashier just input the value of receipt i dont think she cared whether you consumed it all or not. the couple in front of me had value left over and she was encourging them to use it up by grabbing some cheap xmas decorations near the cashier! the queue is not that bad either. less than 10min.